CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/10/2024

Artbook at MoMA PS1 Bookstore presents Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez and Juan Ferrer on 'Let's Become Fungal!'

Friday, May 10 at 3 PM, Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore presents a conversation between writer and curator Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez and artist and curator Juan Ferrer in celebration of Let’s Become Fungal! Mycelium Teachings and the Arts: Based on Conversations with Indigenous Wisdom Keepers, Artists, Curators, Feminists and Mycologists, featuring an ambient DJ set with music, words and sounds from the Museo del Hongo's Collection and Archive. Join in person or livestream on Instagram.

The enormous popular interest in the world of fungi and the mycelium testifies to its tremendous resonance as a metaphor for new ways of thinking, new systems and behaviors. Taking its inspiration from this world, Let’s Become Fungal! looks at a range of Indigenous practices from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia that are rooted in multispecies collaboration, symbiosis, alliances, non-monetary resource exchange, decentralization, bottom-up methods and mutual dependency―all suggestive of the behavior of the mycelium.

Each of the book’s 12 chapters offers teachings on collaboration, decoloniality, nonlinearity, toxicity, mobilization, biomimicry, death and being nonbinary, while also examining the world of fungi. Let’s Become Fungal! shows how fungi can inspire artists, collectives, organizations, educators, policymakers, designers, scientists, anthropologists, curators, urbanists, activists, gardeners, community leaders, farmers and others to become more fungal in their ways of working and being.

Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez is a writer, curator and researcher on art and ecology. She is the founder and director of the Green Art Lab Alliance (established in 2012); a network comprising sixty art organizations across Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. The mission of the alliance is to foster relationships that contribute to social and environmental justice, akin to the interconnected nature of mycelium. She is a self-proclaimed "mycophile", interested in exploring the application of a mycological lens in defining fair models of collaboration and (self) organization. Her debut book, Let’s Become Fungal!, shares twelve teachings of the world of fungi.

Juan Ferrer is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and curator navigating art, science, and the social-ecological crisis. He founded Museo del Hongo in 2016, a pop-up/virtual museum integrating art, mycology, and technology; showcased work at Telluride Mushroom Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Ars Electronica, and Berlin Science Week; and is currently completing his Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies at NYU.

Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore
Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez and Juan Ferrer on 'Let's Become Fungal!'
Friday, May 10 at 3 PM
22-25 Jackson Ave (at 46th Ave.)
Long Island City, NY 11101
(718) 433-1088
RSVP: artbookstores.com.
Pre-order a signed book at artbookstores.com.